Monolithic Microwave integrated circuits (MMICs) are the preferred approach for implementing complex radio frequency (RF) functions due to the circuits' minimal size, weight and power dissipation. Current MMIC solutions begin to struggle to maintain their performance as demand increases for higher bandwidth at higher RF frequencies.
Microwave photonics—the use of photonic devices for signal handling/processing microwave data, has been proposed to enable broader bandwidth and higher frequency operation for RF functions; however, current state of the art has yet to produce solutions that are sufficiently small and have a low enough power dissipation to replace MMICs, Furthermore, the requirement for photonic solutions to use optical fibers as an interconnection medium further increases the size of these solutions and degrades their robustness to harsh environments. What is needed is a chip scale microwave IC that has the broad optical bandwidth of photonics.
Descriptions of certain details and implementations follow, including a description of the figures, which may depict some or all of the embodiments described below, as well as discussing other potential embodiments or implementations of the inventive concepts presented herein. An overview of embodiments of the invention is provided below, followed by a more detailed description with reference to the drawings.